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High-resolution profiles of surface pH and growth along vertically growing maize (Zea mays) primary root tips were determined simultaneously by pH-sensitive microelectrodes and marking experiments. Methodological tests were carried out that proved the reliability of our kinematic growth analysis, while questioning the validity of an alternative technique employed previously. A distal acidic zone around the meristematic region and a proximal one around the elongation zone proper were detected. This pattern as such persisted irrespective of the bulk pH value. The proximal acidic region coincided with maximum relative elemental growth rates (REGR), and both characters reacted in a correlated …

Auxin induces extracellular acidification in growing shoot tissue. The causal relationship between this process and auxin-mediated growth is debated, partly because of contradicting previous reports on the temporal correlation of auxin-induced apoplast pH-drops and growth bursts. We have simultaneously measured both parameters on the background of spontaneously occurring endogenous changes in growth rate and apoplast pH in maize coleoptile segments. Our data demonstrate good temporal correlation, during both the ‘Spontaneous Growth Response’ and the response to exogenous auxin, which is transient under the conditions chosen due to rapid auxin metabolism. We suggest that cell wall pH and growth rate are …

In excised Zea mays L. coleoptiles incubated in aerated media at high fresh weight per volume ratios, indole-3-acetic acid induces transient drops of extracellular pH. Based on the quantitative dependency of the response on the initial auxin concentration we developed a novel auxin bioassay, which allows reliable estimation of IAA concentrations between 10−8.5 and 10−5 M. Using the bioassay and complementary concentration measurements by IAA fluorescence we found the transient IAA-induced pH response paralleled by a decrease of auxin activity and concentration in the medium. This decline is rapid and starts immediately upon auxin addition, and insofar differs from the …

Cell-wall acidification and electrical reactions (depolarization and hyperpolarization) are typical auxin responses in maize (Zea mays L.) coleoptiles. In an attempt to test the role of the outer epidermis in these responses, they have been measured and compared in intact and peeled coleoptile fragments. To exclude interactions between parenchymal and epidermal cells, the coleoptile pieces were completely stripped of their outer epidermis. This preparation was monitored by means of a scanning electron microscope. When externally applied indole-3-acetic acid was tested, we found that neither cell-wall acidification nor the electrical membrane responses depended on the presence of intact epidermal cells.

Using abraded Zea mays L. coleoptile segments, proton extrusion has been measured in the presence of growth promoting auxins and their inactive structural analogues. Prior to application, the segments spontaneously acidified the external medium to pH 4.8 within 7 h. Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) concentration dependently decreases external pH to 4.2, fusicoccin (FC) to below 3.5. Whereas the IAA-effect spontaneously recovers and can be repeated, the FC-effect is final and irreversible. The growth promoting auxins 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and 1-naphthylacetic acid (1-NAA) all stimulate proton extrusion similar to IAA. The growth inactive structural analogues 2,3-dichlorophenoxyacetic …